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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alan Parker

A Call to Relational Evangelism

Well, I am glad to be here, and I bring you greetings from Southern Adventist University.

I'm a professor there and director of our soul winning and leadership training program, which is a new evangelism program run right from the university campus with college credits.

So we are thrilled to see evangelism taking place, but I think like you, we've probably struggled a little bit with traditional evangelism.

And I was saying, you know, it just seems like evangelism is no longer as effective as it once was.

And then I caught myself saying, what am I talking about?

But I realized that it was not that evangelism doesn't work, it's that the way we do evangelism doesn't work.

And so I invite you this morning to think with me about how God reaches people and about how we in turn can reach people the way Jesus does.

Father God, I ask for your presence, for your Holy Spirit to be here.

You know the challenges of each person's heart, and as Jeremy so wonderfully sang, you see everything, and yet you offer forgiveness.

Help us to never forget the power of your love, and to allow that power to transform our lives and to transform the way we approach others.

So if I asked you a question, and can you interact here, is that allowed?

So if I ask you a question, who is the most effective evangelist in the world?

Jesus, alright, that was a safe answer, that's a Sabbath school answer.

Any question they ask you in Sabbath school, you say Jesus and you'll be fine.

So who is the most effective evangelist besides Jesus?

I've had more than 9 years, and I had about 3 church plans.

Of course, Mark Finley would be great, And we continue to pray for him.

But Mark Finney, an incredible evangelist, who else?

They did a survey in 2004, about 1, 689 surveys, about, give or take.

And so, after they did these surveys, they asked how people joined the church because they wanted to see what was the most effective means by which people joined the church.

Now I deliberately asked a trick question earlier, who is the most effective evangelist?

But the answer is very surprising because according to that survey, guess who the most effective evangelist is?

60% of all people who have come to faith have done it because of a friend or a relative, according to that survey.

Other surveys I've done have suggested more like 80%.

Now, when you take a look at other things that have brought people in, felt needs and different things, None of them has been effective as a personal invitation from someone else.

So we're just going to practice here and see if this is true.

So we're going to practice, and what we want to see is how you came to faith in Jesus Christ, and if you've gone that far, and maybe joined the church.

We want to see what was the most effective means.

So I'm just going to read out a couple of things here.

How many of you came because the church offered a special needs program?

Then next 1, how many of you just walked into church?

You just like, you were randomly passing by and you decided to walk into the church.

How many of you came because of a pastor?

That was the primary means by which you join the church, a pastor.

All right, that's not helping my profession.

How many of you came because of visitation?

Somebody stopped by your home that was not a friend or family member, but just somebody came and stopped by.

Right, it's not helping my evangelism program.

You just came because you love Sabbath school or you wanted your kids to come to Sabbath school and that was your primary reason why you came.

How many of you came because of an evangelistic series?

All right, now, how many of you came because of a friend or a family member, or perhaps you were born into the faith and you just continued in it?

How many of you joined the church or became a Christian because of a friend or family member.

Our little survey here proves conclusively that the most effective person to reach your life is somebody close to you.

And that has turned my world upside down.

It was all about strangers, connecting with strangers, and then I realized the most effective and powerful people I can connect with are people within my social circle.

And yet, most of my evangelism has been based on events whereby people go out and they do activities for a short period of time, feel better, and then hope that enough seeds will be sown that people will come to Jesus.

There's a man smoking a cigarette, he's got a beer can, and it's got above his head shallow thoughts, shallow thoughts, shallow thoughts.

And then this Christian comes up from behind with his Bible literature.

I'm not gonna call them glow tracks because I'm sure there was something else.

And he comes running and he jumps onto him and he shouts, Bonsai!

And then for some reason, this man takes off running in the opposite direction.

And the Christian is left smiling snugly, well, at least I sowed some seeds.

Is this how God intended evangelism to take place?

Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't try to reach strangers, because God can effectively work in every circumstance, as we'll see from our Bible text this morning.

But we should not depend on stranger evangelism as our primary approach, and even less so should we depend on a program or a preacher to make the difference.

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A Call to Relational Evangelism

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